November 2008 - Techbreak

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Techbreak - November 2008

Flexible Displays from the US Army!

November 21st 2008 23:30

Though the US military is often criticized for spending too much money on toys and guns, one unequivocal fact is that they fund research into many exciting technologies, some which will be commercialized for consumer products.

The electronic ink products are coming out fast and hard, as companies race to deliver an 'e-reader' to the public. The Amazon Kindle was the first big push, but it didn't catch on like some had hoped.

Others are waiting for Apple's move into this territory, as they have that savvy consumer sense, and the design expertise to make a product that people will want to buy.

Wired reports that the US Army is spearheading more advances into a new type of electronic ink, a flexible display, which is printed on a plastic material that can be shaped and formed into visors, windshields, etc.

"That technology could become reality in two to three years, thanks to U.S. Army-backed research being done at Arizona State University's Flexible Display Center. According to Army researchers, the displays could be in field trials with soldiers as early as 2010 or 2011.

"The Army's motivation is to give soldiers the best situational awareness," says David Morton, U.S. Army research laboratory manager for the center. "Flexible display technology can enable us give soldiers information in ways we can't now." "

Everyone's excited by this technology because it's the fastest way for our society to get to sci-fi realms. Movies have been hawking these incredible displays for years, and we're tired of not having cereal boxes with moving images on them!

It makes sense fo the military, too - imagine reducing the weight of all their electronics and displays? They could save on costs and reduce the amount of equipment that their soldiers need to carry.

The military has come together with electronics companies to try and bring these products to the market. Hopefully, I'll be watching movies on them any day....

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You've just upgraded to Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (8.10) - let's tweak it!

November 14th 2008 22:27

Yes, I made the plunge... perhaps it was a silly move, risky, even, as I've got all my work on this laptop, and Kubuntu Hardy Heron was working just fine.

Hardy Heron came with KDE 3.5.x, which was stable and well-loved by KDE fans. It looked good, I changed the fonts, icons and wallpaper to make it just the way I liked. Everything seemed like it was going fine.

But it nagged me - I WANTED to move to Intrepid Ibex since it came with KDE 4.1.

KDE 4.1 made some radical changes to the desktop, getting rid of the standard 'Desktop', and replacing it with a Dashboard that contains widgets.

So, I took the plunge, backing up my /home partition, and preparing for the big move. I was worried, the entire time, that some notorious problem would rear its ugly head; with Hardy, my wireless didn't work, forcing me to seek forum help and finally install MadWifi drivers.

Well, I crossed my fingers this time.

I installed Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex and started it up. My wireless didn't work. I was crushed.

Luckily, the answer proved to be simple - someone posted that a single package had to be installed. Once I did that, my wireless worked just fine.

Now that I'm up and running, though, it's time to start tweaking.... Lifehacker has a useful post, outlining some things you might want to try with your Ubuntu distribution.

They offer tips on speeding up your hard drive, upgrading to OpenOffice 3, and using the Medibuntu codecs to play DVDs. A world of useful information, at your fingertips!

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Tuning up KDE 4.1

November 13th 2008 03:30

With the new release of Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex, I've finally installed KDE 4.1 on my laptop - and it's terrific.

Sure, there have been some rocky moments... with Hardy Heron, my wireless was moody, and things got messy after a while, though it felt much more productive than using a Windows environment.

The above screenshot is my workspace, taking full advantage of the Plasmoid concept in the new version of KDE.

Sure, it takes some getting used to, especially since many of the settings and functionality have been moved to different parts of the system, but, in general, it feels like a polished OS.

Perhaps the best part, for me, is that KDE 4.1 uses its own window compositor, which means that fancy effects, like you might see on Macbooks or Vista Aero, are now available without the installation of additional software.

That's right - I installed Intrepid Ibex, and now my windows go translucent, fade away, as well as a whole host of other effects - right out of the box, and on my low-end laptop, which would probably struggle to see Aero effects in Vista.

TechRadar has a useful post on how to tweak the KDE desktop, a useful guide for someone that's new to the system. I followed a few of their tips, and now I'm feelin' happy with the way my desktop looks.

Perhaps the best part about moving to KDE 4.1 is that I know that the community will come up with some fantastic work... bugs will be squashed, code will be optimized, new functions will be created. It's a big, bright world, and I'm thrilled to see how it changes...

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Outstanding Open Source Apps

November 5th 2008 01:53

With the economy in a shocking tailspin, some pundits are looking forward to the failure of open source software... open source was a movement that revitalized the idea of a software community, offering surprisingly robust applications with decent security.

[ Click here to read more ]

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